Jim Surge's Amazing Tag-Team League (DOTT)

[Purple Cowboy]

[b]NOTE:[/b] I plan on doing one of these with the C-Verse as well once I get through the initial tournament here. My updates will be kind of spotty because of work & real-life so it might be a slow-burn but I won’t abandon. [i]This is sort of meant to be the personal blog of Jim Surge, who is my player character in this dynasty. In March of 1983 Surge is a 30-year old cowboy from Deadwood, Arizona where his family owns a very successful and profitable cattle ranch. Despite his rustic upbringing Surge was schooled privately and became the first member of his family to attend an Ivy League university when he was accepted to Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. He made his home there upon graduation for several years until his father became ill and he felt compelled to return to Arizona to oversee operations at the family ranch. After his father’s death last year and after settling some petty squabbles with greedy relatives Surge hired an experienced and reliable Head Rancher and moved back to Princeton with his family fortune and the continuing income of the cattle ranch at his disposal. Since his earliest economic courses at Princeton Surge had always (and often at the expense of open ridicule from most of his professors and peers) used the wrestling industry in all of his examples and class presentations. A couple of the children of wealthy regional wrestling promoters, however, were also Princeton classmates and they and Surge became fast friends. And now that Surge had returned to Princeton with a large fortune at the ready a wild idea had emerged among Surge and his connected friends. Surge’s most relevant and memorable report was delivered on what he felt was missing in the wrestling market and what would be a surefire economic success: a high-profile, tag-team only federation. At that time Surge explained that using the boxing model for tracking wins, losses, and draws, and publishing regular, updated rankings, would only add to the league’s uniqueness and that was basically the thought as they moved ahead.[/i] [b]March, 1983: The Idea Takes Seed[/b] It’s amazing really… the boys were right. You get to a certain kind of person, you get under their skin, and you might actually be able to get them to do something for you. Our first two targets were specifically selected because of their unique connections in the wrestling business. 30-year old [b]Greg Gagne,[/b] hitting that magic age of 30 and still being portrayed as not talented enough to get out from under father [b]Verne Gagne’s[/b] long shadow, was target #1. His connections not only from his being raised in the industry but from his own career in the AWA and overseas, compounded with his personal insecurity, made him an obvious target. While Gagne and 33-year old [b]Jim Brunzell[/b] were enjoying some success as the High Flyers in the AWA, if we could get them to consider joining our league and buy into our plan of acquiring 32 of the best tag-teams in wrestling today for an amazing tournament the likes of which the industry has never known, they would not only be foundational members of the TTL but their talent would have them near the top of our regular cards. Harder to convince but no less connected would be 19-year old [b]Mike von Erich.[/b] It was a huge gamble and highly improbably that we’d actually be able to steal away the youngest von Erich brother from the family promotion, especially since there was a lot of hype for Mike’s athletic ability, but we were not only willing to hand out a hefty written contract we angled ourselves as a place for Mike to simultaneously step out of the shadow and expectations of his family while at the same time providing a place to prove the talent of the von Erich family name outside of the World Class bubble. The problem with Mike was that after suggesting the idea and having him sound cautiously interested he let me know that he wouldn’t come without one of his brothers! And so convincing not one but [i]two[/i] of the von Erich brothers to leave the family business might not exactly be entirely possible. But we were certainly going to try. If we could secure a Gange and a von Erich, we’d be well on our way towards generating some significant buzz. And if we paid these boys enough, word would get out sooner rather than later.